To ask you your favourite holiday places

[Bluejeanjen]

Just that. Please tell me your absolute favourite places to holiday and why. Home or abroad. No such thing as too much detail. Thank you

So when booking a mixed age holiday with teens you need to ask what each person wants to do and what they want out of it. Start a list. When I went away with my DD to Gran Caneria I picked accommodation by a big park with wildlife because she sleeps in and I didn't want wasted time.
Clean accommodation with our own toilet is a must, noisy doesn't matter etc. My DD has to have a boat/canal/river trip. We both like the quads. She loves kayaking, I'm happy to go for solo walks.
So start a list with must haves on. Your teens might want down/phone time, figure that in and have an alternative for you.

@BashfulClam

No because I’m too selfish and don’t want more people going to ‘my places’ lol

Exactly this. While I know that other people obviously go there too, I'd prefer it if it wasnt too many of them!!

Italy but especially Tuscany
Crete - Chania is beautiful as are the beaches on the western part of the Island

Rab island, Croatia. Go every year (except last year of course) and am here right now, half-way through a 4 week stay. Absolute magic. With 12yo DS, and have met up with adult DDs here (they live in other European countries) as we always do.

Jervis Bay, NSW, Australia - for the beach, the wildlife (kangaroos and wallabies, multitudes of birds, dolphines, whales, the beautiful blue water.

Flinders Ranges, South Australia, for the stars and the brilliant campsite.

Northumberland, for the history, the vast empty beaches, the castles, the walking.

Tuscany for the landscapes, the cypress trees and olive groves, the light and the food and wine, the churches, the hill villages.

Normandy for the countryside and small towns and villages, for the military history and the seafood and cheese and apples and collecting muchrooms.

The Loire Valley for the beautiful chateaux and the gardens, picnics by the river and the ankle deep conkers in Richelieu.

Bali for the rice terraces and the temples and flowers.

Norway for the fjords.

In no particular order:

South Africa - Amazing food, sunshine, beautiful scenery, cheap as chips and no jet lag!

Japan - Amazing food, friendly people, stunning country

Italy - Amazing Food, 2.5 hrs on a plane, beautiful people, history, great train network to get around.

Australia - West coast campervanning, its devoid of people, incredible landscape, amazing snorkelling, great wine but expensive.

Andalucia - Feels like 2nd home, Malaga city, Granada, Seville, Cordoba - all within a few hrs drive.

Devon & Cornwall - Too busy but still beautiful

@Bluejeanjen

Thanks all for your input! I probably should have worded the post better. Im looking for a holiday for next summer. I get so overwhelmed with the choices, reading reviews, weighing up the value vs cost. Then trying to make sure the brochure photos and descriptions and how you imagine it, are as realistic as possible. So what I’d really love if you don’t mind to share, is your favourite places narrowed right down to the town/village AND where you like to stay. Maybe as a PP said that’s a big ask because you don’t want others to discover it but i really struggle with choice and I want to give my dh and teenagers a lovely holiday since it’s the first we will have had since the start of 2019. Thanks all so much for your input. Any will be great fully received! If you know of places that friends and relatives have stayed and love please tell me those also. Love and thanks to all x

The chances are that won’t work because even the best plans can be spoilt by weather, inconsiderate neighbours or even just a bad room in a great hotel. Like going to a brilliant restaurant and choosing the least nice meal or getting the table near the banging door.

I’d do a cruise or a road trip.
You have better chance of finding something or somewhere you like and there’s no investment like a week or two week holiday.

I’m a bit like you and find the expectation overwhelming even though I love booking holidays. Cruises have been less great but memorable and easy. I never feel like I haven’t had a holiday.
Road trips have been the most fun. There’s something freeing about only spending a night somewhere and because it’s only a night you tend to enjoy the good bits and ignore the faults. I say this as someone picky as well.

We had one of our best ever family holiday in the Netherlands, stopping off at a theme park in Belgium (Plopsaland) and Ghent for a night on our journey there and back, daytripping into Amsterdam while we stayed on the coast. The sandy beaches in the Netherlands are unbelievable - just massive, and virtually empty. Fantastic for sports like kite surfing if you have older kids. People are friendly and speak English but most tourists, not surprisingly, arent English so you feel like you've really gone somewhere. We were quite lucky with weather which probably helped. There are some great attractions - construction of the dykes, windmills etc.

Then we spent 3 nights in Rotterdam which was the best bit. Totally surprised by it. There is a massive indoor food hall, a great maritime museum, excellent boat tours of the port so you can see all the modern architecture of the city and the huge container vessels being loaded. And we went to a really amazingly cheap park on the bus (plaaswijkpark, I think) with loads of things for the kids (splash area, animals, big trikes, a huge indoor playhouse made like a giant dolls house - sort of a soft play but better, playgrounds etc).

Great trip for little kids and pre-teens.

Our favourite holidays are cruises, Sandals and Beaches, multi trips and city breaks.
Destinations UK :
Cornwall
Dorset
Cotswolds
Peak District

Abroad long haul:
Canada
Caribbean
Central America
USA

Short haul:
Budapest
Scandinavia
Italy
Croatia

Next on list:
Maldives and Sri Lanka
South Africa
Cruise to Central America
Alaskan cruise and Vancouver

Teenagers maybe Biarritz. Fab surfing and non surfing beaches. Good restaurants. Reasonably priced. Day trips possible. Radisson has a rooftop pool.

1. Las Vegas with the girls
2. Salou with my mum every May half term
3. Benidorm
4. Tunisia

These are 4 places we find ourselves back in repeatedly.

Next year for the first time I’m going to Cancun and Punta Cana (been a dream for years so maybe my list will change!)

Slovenia.
Lake Bled/Bohinj absolutely stunning. So much to do. Went in February with half the lakes still frozen, snow covered mountains etc. Would love to go in the summer to see the difference.

@BashfulClam

No because I’m too selfish and don’t want more people going to ‘my places’ lol

Exactly how I feel! In so many of the places we used to pass through in the US we used to hardly ever see any other Europeans, doesn't happen as much these days.

Sicily - we stayed in an agriturismo which is a farmstay with animals, orchards and a restaurant.
Provence during lavender season.
Northern coast of Spain, very green with great beaches and food.
Norway - expensive but absolutely worth it.
Cuba - travelling around and staying with local families.
We usually go on train holidays so favourites of those would be Trans Siberian, Vietnam and India

This is it completely! I love a road trip and I think you have summed it up. You can move on and look forward to the next bit. Some parts are disappointing but others are above and beyond. So me looking for a package somewhere maybe is not the best idea after all. Especially with teens who all have different interests. I’ve got some thinking to do!

That was for @Thewinterofdiscontent but the reply didn’t work properly

@RainingZen

We had one of our best ever family holiday in the Netherlands, stopping off at a theme park in Belgium (Plopsaland) and Ghent for a night on our journey there and back, daytripping into Amsterdam while we stayed on the coast. The sandy beaches in the Netherlands are unbelievable - just massive, and virtually empty. Fantastic for sports like kite surfing if you have older kids. People are friendly and speak English but most tourists, not surprisingly, arent English so you feel like you've really gone somewhere. We were quite lucky with weather which probably helped. There are some great attractions - construction of the dykes, windmills etc.

Then we spent 3 nights in Rotterdam which was the best bit. Totally surprised by it. There is a massive indoor food hall, a great maritime museum, excellent boat tours of the port so you can see all the modern architecture of the city and the huge container vessels being loaded. And we went to a really amazingly cheap park on the bus (plaaswijkpark, I think) with loads of things for the kids (splash area, animals, big trikes, a huge indoor playhouse made like a giant dolls house - sort of a soft play but better, playgrounds etc).

Great trip for little kids and pre-teens.

That sounds awesome. Maybe one for us

@TheDudesmummy

Rab island, Croatia. Go every year (except last year of course) and am here right now, half-way through a 4 week stay. Absolute magic. With 12yo DS, and have met up with adult DDs here (they live in other European countries) as we always do.

I’ll look this up as never heard of the place. Thanks

@Ponoka7

So when booking a mixed age holiday with teens you need to ask what each person wants to do and what they want out of it. Start a list. When I went away with my DD to Gran Caneria I picked accommodation by a big park with wildlife because she sleeps in and I didn't want wasted time. Clean accommodation with our own toilet is a must, noisy doesn't matter etc. My DD has to have a boat/canal/river trip. We both like the quads. She loves kayaking, I'm happy to go for solo walks. So start a list with must haves on. Your teens might want down/phone time, figure that in and have an alternative for you.

Sound advice there. My teens are all very different so some compromises will be made but should be able to please everyone a bit

I loved: Estoril
Cape Cod
Menorca
Ibiza love go back
Lanzarote as nice breeze at night
Jersey was stunning

@LemonRoses I loved evolve back kabini and would love to go back

Thailand, I just think it's so beautiful, lovely people, food etc.
Any Greek island, just love Greece, so relaxed and pretty.
UK I like Dorset, Devon, Peak District, Lake District and Norfolk.

Dubrovnik in the summer and Berlin in the winter have been my favourite holidays. Singapore is great too, lovely people.

Mirrorxx Me too - but there are also lots more places I want to visit. It rather special .

My favourite place is Cape Town.
My favourite holidays are Cape Town, a Disney cruise around the med. I also really enjoyed a holiday to Brazil and Argentina when my DC we’re young teens. We stayed in Rio and then flew to iguassa and stayed in a hotel in a rain forest in Argentina. One day we visited three countries in one day.
I really enjoy cruise and stay holidays or stay and cruise as these trips seem to be the best of both worlds. One fave was a cruise to Romania, Istanbul and Bulgaria and then a week in Turkey afterwards. That was a family favourite.
I also like winter city breaks in five star hotels with a good spa.